


Busted at the Buster

by JanitorBot



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blockbuster AU, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff and Crack, Gen, I say crack treated seriously but I don't even know, M/M, Real Life, can you also call this highschool au too considering their ages here?, freaking, idfk what im doing at this point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 11:01:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16932051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanitorBot/pseuds/JanitorBot
Summary: X is the cute checkout boy at Blockbuster and Zero keeps renting movies to see him.The problem: Zero doesn't own a VHS player.





	Busted at the Buster

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Robotic_meido](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robotic_meido/gifts).



> A commissioned fic for Robotic_meido who wanted the following:
> 
> "Blockbuster AU! XZero. I want this to be the most cliché chick flick moment ever. I want dumb drama, I want that ‘The Notebook’ shit and I don’t care if no one understands what the fuck is going on because I know what’s going on and that’s all that matters to me.”  
> Chex wanted a 1980s/1990s, XZero AU that takes place in one of the last Blockbusters in America. The problem is the last Blockbuster stores started closing between November 6, 2013 and January 12, 2014. Also, homosexuality was very much a stigma back then.  
> So pretend Blockbuster started dying in the 20th century and the world was more progressive than it was at the time I guess.  
> In fact, this is an AU with a crack premise, don’t take it too seriously at all.

Zero looks down at the dimly glaring reflection of the vinyl video cover case and frowns when a drop of water lands on the upper lip. The blond lifts his chin up towards the sky, taking note of the greying clouds rumbling ominously over the spacious black parking out.

 _Ten more minutes_ , Zero thinks calculatingly.

The radio mentioned that Abel City is going to receive a heavy summer storm around this time and it'll continue raining for a good couple of hours. It’s perfect because Zero can use the bad weather as an excuse to hang around in the store longer, giving him more than plenty of time to execute his strategy.

With that thought, Zero traverse pass the scattered shopping carts and isolated cars to the Blockbuster. He stops right before the automatic doors slide open. He fixes up his red cap and his ponytail, brushes off the slightest bits of dirt off his varsity jacket, and once he’s more presentable than before, finally strides in.

Zero scans the contents on the back of his previous rental and commits it to memory before mechanically sliding it into the return box. His sharp blue eyes are honed onto the back of a specific employee’s back who’s processing another customer’s purchase at the cash register line.

 _Stop standing around like an idiot and find a movie already,_ the mission part of Zero’s brain orders. _You can stare at him all you want once you’re actually in front of him._

Zero walks to the nearest aisle, forcing himself to stop watching X for a moment in order to focus.

He spots ‘Jurassic Park.’ It’s an old movie that Zero vaguely recalls from the trailers when they were still circulating on television.  Basically the whole point of it is dinosaurs eating people. That’s not too hard to talk about.

Good. If X talks about the movie with him next week, maybe Zero can say something more than the summary written on the back of the case then. Zero snatches the video tape off the shelf.

Now he just has to wait.

At first it comes lightly with a sound of something shuddering and the occasional heavy drop here and there on the rooftop. Then the view of the parking lot blurs into a smeared grey blue once the rain comes down harder. A flash of light fills the store in a split second before a thunder growls against the walls.

Zero grins privately to himself.  

The blond pops out from his idle hiding spot in the corner of the store and calmly walks up to the cash register.

“Thank you and don’t catch a cold!” says X kindly to a middle-aged man who grunts his thanks before hurrying off into the beginnings of a bad rainstorm.

Oh god, X.

The sweet checkout boy with the softest looking brown locks, the most vivid shade of viridian eyes, and the brightest smile Zero has ever laid eyes on. Just looking at him has Zero’s heart racing like he scored a goal or he knocked off his kendo opponent’s sword.

“Oh Zero!” greets the brunette as soon as he sees the other boy. “How’s it going?”

“Pretty good,” Zero says as he slips his chosen video onto the conveyor belt. “You?”

X gives a careless shrug. “It’s been a slow day. Thursdays y’know? Oh, Jurassic Park!”

“It’s good,” Zero says despite never watching the movie before.

“I can watch this movie over and over again,” X enthuses. “I love the scene when we see the dinosaur! God, it’s such an iconic shot. When I first saw in on theaters, I seriously thought the dinosaurs were real.”

Zero nods indulgently. “It looked really realistic.”

“I know right?!” X agrees, growing excited. His eyes are shining. “The brachiosaurus was done in CG - I never saw such realistic CG before! But what’s even crazier is the velociraptors. They made the velociraptor outfits from scratch! Every single one of them was different so they had individuality. Huge props to the artists, they worked so hard!”

Sheepish, X rubs the back of his neck. “My bad, I didn’t mean to ramble to you again. I really need to stop doing that…”

“It’s okay. I like hearing you talk,” Zero says reassuringly. “You know a lot of cool things I don’t know. If you didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t know the velociraptors were suits.”

Which is the truth. Zero knows nothing.

“I shouldn’t be keeping you from leaving though,” says X as he finally processes Zero’s rental.

Zero hands over three dollars and gestures at the weather outside. “I’m in no hurry. I didn’t bring an umbrella.” He deliberately didn’t.

“Yeah, it’s coming down hard…” X observes as another thunder crashes through.

“I’m going to stick around until it lets up a little.” Zero doesn’t see any customers behind him, awesome. “Is it okay I can hang out with you a bit?”

“Sure. It’s not like my boss cares at this point.”

Zero stomps down the urge to fist pump.

“The store is closing so he’s been really lenient about store policies now.”

_Wait. What?_

Urge to fist pump has died.

“The store’s closing?” asks Zero tensely.

X leans back, appearing wistful. “Yeah, it’s kind of crazy. Ever since Netflix and all those streaming sites came out people aren’t really coming to Blockbuster anymore. Zero, you’re like one of the three people in this neighborhood who comes here regularly.”

“I really like movies,” Zero answers distantly as he’s processing this new information. If this store is closing, where else can he see X? If he doesn’t secure a way to see X again somewhere else, he won’t ever see him again. He needs to -

“And you have good taste,” says X admiringly. “Last time you checked out the Dead Poets Society. It’s got some questionable parts, but overall it’s a good movie and I generally appreciate the message.”

“Huh?” Crap, pop quiz time. What was the name of the character on the back of the tape? “Oh yeah, I really like John Kating.”

“Keating,” X corrects smiling.

“That guy.”   

“I watched the DVD commentary. According to the director, if the boys didn’t stand up for Keating, he wouldn’t have recovered.”

Recovered? So this Keating character was sick.

“I’m glad that he got better. For a moment I thought he was going to die.”

X blinks. “Die? What are you talking about?”

“Well Keating was sick?” Zero says with an uncertain lilt at the end.

“He wasn’t sick,” replies X slowly. “No one was sick. Keating’s the teacher.”

Shit.

“If you didn’t finish the movie, you could have said so,” the brunette adds but Zero can clearly see that the other boy is slightly sullen. “My recommendations are just that: recommendations. They can be a hit or miss. I’m sorry that Dead Poets was a miss for you.”

“I like all the other movies you recommend though!” says Zero hurriedly. “Like Pulse Fiction - that one was good!”

“…You mean Pulp Fiction?”

_Shit._

“Yeah sorry, I’m really bad with names.”

Except X’s eyes narrowed slightly. He’s becoming suspicious -Zero needs to change the subject _now._

“Hey, are you free after work today?” Zero asks quickly.

Green eyes blink. “Huh? Why?”

“Titanic’s out. Want to watch it with me?”

“Titanic? Are you sure you want to watch it with me though?“

“Well yeah, you said you looked forward to watching Titanic last week. Since we both like movies I thought…”

“Titanic’s supposed to be a romance, Zero,” X says with one fine brow raised. “You should watch it with someone you like.”

Zero internally squirms. “You watch movies because of the design and stuff, right? I do that too. We can go both watch it for the design.”

X tilts his head, appearing contemplative. “Hmm. I guess so. What’s a movie that has your favorite design?”

What was a movie that Zero remembers X talking about so much about?

“Trolls 2,” answers Zero.

When X falls gravely silent, Zero knows he fucked up.

“Trolls 2,” repeats X flatly. “Your favorite movie is the worst movie that came out of all time. The one I ranted about how absolutely horrible it is.”

Panicking, the blond blurts,” I was joking. I meant to say Showgirls.”

“Showgirls? That’s a very interesting choice…”

Zero deflates, relieved. “Yeah I thought the story was well done.”

“…Since Showgirls is in French, has a rating of NC-17, and is also considered one of the worst films that was ever made. It had reviews that even the grossest porn is more cheerfully sexual than this movie.”

_SHIT._

Now X’s face has gone neutral save for his eyes that are clearly judging Zero and if Zeros’ going to get judged, at least he wants it because he apparently fulfills the dumb blond stereotype and not because he has questionable taste in bad films and porn.

“I don’t really watch movies,” he confesses finally. He glances away. “All the movies I checked out, I didn’t watch them.”  

The mood has grown so thick that if it was a fog it could be sliced through by a light saber.

“X?” Zero starts hesitantly.

The brunette in question is bowing his head down, brown bangs shadowing his eyes. “So you were lying to me this entire time? You were…what, laughing behind my back while I was running my mouth on about all the movies I liked? Pretending you watched them so you get to hear me sound like an idiot?”

Eyes bulging, Zero surges,” No! I was – “

“What a really elaborate prank,” X interrupts, scoffing. He smiles in thinly veiled pain, clearly hurt. “Congratulations. I really thought you were cool, Zero. I thought I found someone who I can discuss about the amount of effort and artistry that are put into these films. How amazing it is that there are entire teams of people out there who can take the audience into another world and – oh wait, why am I running off my mouth for again? That’ll just give you another reason to laugh at the movie nerd.”

X ducks down and hefts up a blue backpack and an umbrella, fixing a stunned Zero with a harsh, watery glare as he gathers his belongings.

“Today was my last day here so sorry for ending your hobby so soon. I hope you had lots of fun, Zero. See you never.”

X briskly leaves behind the register and Zero balks, finally registering what’s going on, and he twists, shouting,” X, wait!” right as the other boy is opening up his umbrella and marching into the rain.

Red cap resisting weakly to the straight downward pour of the disappointed heavens, Zero dashes out to chase after X, his clothes becoming increasingly soaked.

“X, wait!” Zero cries out again as he rushes towards the brunette’s leaving back. “I wasn’t making fun of you! I was checking out the videos because I love you!”   

 X halts in his tracks and swiftly turns around to full-bodily face Zero, taking a step forward so sudden that has Zero almost jumping backwards to avoid being hit by X’s umbrella.

“Love me? _Love me?!”_ X raises his voice hysterically. “Is this another stupid joke? Why can’t you leave me alone!”

“No I swear, I do love you, that’s why I keep coming back to Blockbuster when I – “ Zero barks out a mirthless laugh. “God I know this sounds really stupid but I don’t have a VHS player. I never did. But you work at a video store and what choice did I have if I wanted to keep seeing you? I had to pretend I had one! If I kept seeing you without getting anything, I would look like a creep!”

X gawks. “Do you – do you realize how dumb you sound? I’m not going to even touch that whole part about not having a VHS – that’s just so amazingly stupid I can’t wrap my mind around it. But how can you even say you love me? You don’t even _know_ me!” 

“I know you love movies because that was you and your brother’s thing before he went off to college,” Zero responds a little desperately, wiping his face so he won’t splutter through all the water. “I know you have a pet dog name Rush who you taught soccer to ever since you watched Air Bud. I know you do set and outfit design for your theater club, you do volunteer, you’re in robotics because I remember everything you said that’s about you. I don’t remember the movies too well because I – “ he grabs his face, feeling it warm up.

It’s now or never. _Now or never._

“You’re at your cutest when you get excited. And you get excited every time you talk about movies.”  

Zero hurries into his pockets and stick out two small pieces of paper, sheltering them with his other hand so they don’t get too soaked. “That’s why I bought two tickets to the opening night for Titanic. I wanted to ask _you_ out.”

X stares.

Bending his head lower so he can duck under X’s umbrella to come a little closer, Zero continues, “Maybe I don’t know you that much. But can you let me have a chance to know you better then?”

The blond’s chest tightens with every passing second X doesn’t say anything.

Zero wipes his face again, slightly ashamed that he can feel unwelcome heat near his eyes.

_Good thing it's raining._

He takes a deep breath and slowly grabs X’s unused hand to splay it upward. He places the two Titanic tickets on it.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable,” he whispers morosely. “Take this and go with someone you do like. I’ll leave you alone.”

Before Zero can fully pull away, X’s hand wraps around Zero’s, stopping the other boy in his place.

“You’re getting wet,” X says quietly. He’s not looking at Zero directly but his cheeks are tinted red. “My house isn’t far from here. I’ll get you a towel so you can dry up and then we can go see Titanic later.”

“Really?” Zero asks hushed, not daring himself to feel hope just yet. feeling something likened to soaring inside of him.

X smiles shyly. “I have a VHS in my room. We can watch movies at my place from now on. Then we can actually talk about them.”

This time Zero doesn’t hold back from fist pumping.


End file.
